


point blank

by Anonymous



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Assassins & Hitmen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-04
Updated: 2017-08-04
Packaged: 2018-12-10 11:04:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11690316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: When Yuri is halfway across the world and learning how to die, any permutation of friendship won’t go amiss.





	point blank

 

Yuri likes airports.

The wonder of flight has never left him, even when he has travelled on more planes than most people might in a lifetime. He thinks that maybe it's because he’s been taught the improbable physics of flying before he ever set foot in a cabin. Maybe it's because he knows the simplicity of the moment the plane lifts off into the air; when the plane accelerates from V1 to rotation speed and — when Yuri would apply the correct control inputs — to V2, pitching up.

Yuri slots his nondescript car neatly in between a Renault and a Nissan in the airport parking lot. When no one else is around, he slips out with his hood up and black bangs hanging over his eyes. He leaves everything else in the vehicle, including his driver’s licence, which states that his persona is nineteen years old.

He’s not. He turned fifteen last March, and he knows someone who calls him a kitten, who accuses him of playing with his food before he eats it. He likes that analogy, but today he’s planning to keep it simple.

Comparatively speaking.

He walks to the edge of the lot and hefts himself onto the concrete barrier. It’s a one-storey drop down to the ground, but to the side are rungs built into the wide pillar for emergency use. He uses them to climb down.

From there, it’s a short walk to the isolated meeting place. He watches a plane fly from take-off. And the target should be arriving— right about— now.

Yuri deftly pulls out his gun, steps out from behind the wall, and shoots them in the chest. They’re down before their eyes even widen at Yuri’s sudden appearance.

They have some nerve, conducting their activities in the grounds of a tightly-surveilled airport. It’s none of Yuri’s business, though; he doesn’t care. It just means that getting out might require a different kind of creative thinking to the usual.

It’s time to go.

Yuri nearly makes it to the second car park before he suddenly stops. He’s developed some finely-honed instincts through the years. He almost senses the bullet before it fires; he simply steps to the side as it whizzes past. He coolly remains there as return fire is opened. He turns back to see the sniper fall at the top of the building.

The motorbike stops on the road right in front of him.

“Get on,” the biker says curtly, tossing a helmet at him. Yuri does.

As they merge onto the freeway, Yuri eventually breaks the silence. “Who was that?”

“Who?” Altin is terse. “Your victim, or the sniper?”

“The person who killed the sniper.”

“A friend,” Altin says shortly. “They’ll take care of the sniper’s body.”

“My agency will be there soon to get the first body and my cars.”

“Alright.” Altin’s tone doesn’t invite further conversation and Yuri is content to remain quiet. He watches the road signs as they fly by. It looks like they’re heading into the central business district of Barcelona.

“I didn’t know you were planning to be in Barcelona,” Yuri says.

“I wasn’t.”

“You don’t need to look out for me. You know that I’ll be fine.”

“Forgive me if I don’t believe that coming from a kid who almost got compromised over a tiger shirt in Japan.”

“Alright, so maybe that particular judgement call was flawed,” Yuri says. “I still got the job done, though.”

“Do you even have any idea—” it’s clear that Altin is valiantly attempting to hold onto his composure “—who you just killed? They’re not going to just let it go. They’re going to hunt you down. If they can’t hurt you, they’re going to hurt your family. You need to lie low and be careful, Plisetsky.”

“Everything is through my agency,” Yuri says. “Also, I’ve got no family.”

“You have a grandfather in Moscow,” Altin replies.

Yuri pauses. Then he leans forward.

“Tyger Tyger, burning bright,” he murmurs into Altin’s ear.

Altin tenses. “In the forests of the night,” he responds tightly.

“What immortal hand or eye—”

“—could frame thy fearful symmetry?”

Reassured, Yuri settles back, arms loose around Altin’s middle. He wishes that he could feel the wind through his hair, but it’s covered by that black-haired wig. Times like these, though, he feels free and almost happy. It’s nice to have a— friend, sort of. Even though they rarely end up in the same city, or keep in contact. Too risky.

After a while, Altin speaks. “Do you—” he sounds like he is straining to be polite “—make it a habit to hop onto strangers’ motorbikes in foreign cities when you are not certain of their identity?”

Yuri frowns, even though Altin can’t see him. “You sounded unusually concerned. I had to make sure.”

“I sounded unusually concerned.” Altin’s voice is flat. “Has it escaped you that you are not exactly leading a healthy lifestyle for a fifteen-year-old?”

“I don’t know, Altin, is there an age where all this suddenly becomes acceptable and fulfilling?”

“They’re using you.”

Yuri laughs a little. “Well, of course they are. But I chose this, didn’t I?” He chose this to support his grandfather. He wanted his grandfather to live a better life, didn’t he?

“You were ten! Even younger, when they first started grooming you!” This is the most emotion that Yuri has ever heard in Altin’s voice. He supposes that it does sound quite monstrous when Altin puts it like that.

“I can’t exactly just start going to school again now, can I?”

“You could.” Altin is firm. He changes lanes, and indicates to turn off from the freeway. “They trained you to fit in anywhere, didn’t they? You could make a fresh start wherever you want. You know that I’d help you.”

Yuri stays quiet.

Altin’s about to play his trump card. “You didn’t play your usual games today, did you, Plisetsky? None of your usual creative stunts or convoluted traps. Just a climb down a wall, a bullet in the chest, wait for clean-up. Why is that?”

Because Yuri’s tired. Yuri used to like the thrill of the chase. The taste of hard-won success. Once, Altin caught him engineering the death of a Canadian man by piranha attack in an aquarium in Melbourne. It was eventually billed as a freak accident, a result of the victim’s own drunken behaviour. Yuri was particularly pleased about that one.

In any case, Yuri barely remembers life before this. Even though sometimes, he just wants to go home to his grandfather.

Altin drops him off in a secluded alleyway, a two minute walk to his hotel.

“Just think about it, Plisetsky. Take care of yourself.”

“I’ll see you in Boston,” Yuri says.


End file.
